American Myth?: Refrigerating Eggs
November 13th, 2007So I always thought eggs had to be kept in the fridge until I lived in
England for a while and found that, in grocery stores, eggs were
stocked out in the aisles alongside cereal and bottled gherkins and
the like. This kind of surprised me. So…is the need to refrigerate
eggs just a myth?
I just got Bob’s Red Mill 11-grain cereal in my keyboard.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I have been told, though it’s quite possible I am circulating a myth myself, that American eggs have been washed, thereby removing some protective layer on the eggs’ surface, and thereby necessitating refrigeration. They don’t do this in Europe, so their eggs are just fine on the shelf.
… Okay, I was annoyed at the possibility of my only contributing half-truths, so I googled it, and found this blog post, which references Cook’s Illustrated, which may very well be where I got my info from, but there is no way to check online.
Anyhow, I think the short story is that you need to refrigerate any eggs you buy at a store (that is, ones that were refrigerated when you bought them), but probably not eggs from a farmer or friend who didn’t wash them.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Maybe it has to do with duration. Eggs available in Europe might be more recently laid than the ones in American grocery stores? I also like to imagine Europeans visiting their local market each morning, buying just the eggs they need for that day (before they head off to their grueling six-hour work days). Me, I’ll buy a dozen eggs, stick them promptly in the fridge and eat them over the course of a month or so.
Something else egg- and refrigerator-related that’s creepy. Store-bought mayonnaise doesn’t require refrigeration, even after opening. Which I find especially odd given that home-made mayo will give you a nasty case of food poisoning if you leave it somewhere warm for even a few hours. Maybe it’s because I don’t make mayo out of oh, whipped SOY.
November 17th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Here’s a forum thread from recipezaar.com that might shed some light..
http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=231779
November 21st, 2007 at 6:53 am
Not sure why but they don’t refrigerate them here in Ireland either. Thought that was because they were fresher and didn’t need to be. On my recent trip I was shocked by how very very white American eggs are. Have got too used the regular old brown (almost always free range) eggs I get here. For another custom, in the Cork English Market you can still get buttered eggs which was (I’m told) an old fashioned way of keeping eggs fresher longer. Although the ones I see in the market look like they are in a cold case. Does cage free in US mean the same as free range in Ireland?